Apple serving up 1 billion apps per month, 14 million iPads per quarter

Apple announced a new milestone of 15 billion apps downloaded through its iOS App Store, an installed base of 200 million iOS devices and a library of 425,000 apps, 100,000 of which are natively optimized for iPad.

Apple just reported hitting the 14 billion app milestone early last month at WWDC, indicating that roughly a billion apps are now being downloaded through the App Store each month. The iPad app library numbers were also up by 10,000, jumping from the 90,000 number cited in June.

The new announcement comes on the heels of a report by DigiTimes that Apple has boosted production of iPads to reach as many as 14 million units this quarter. The company is expected to report sales of 7 to 9 million iPads for the quarter that just ended in June.

Since the launch of iPad 2 this spring, Apple has suffered "the mother of all backlogs" in the words of chief operations officer Tim Cook. The launch was complicated by a disastrous earthquake that caused widespread damage in Japan, affecting many of Apple's component suppliers.

Sales of the iPad hit 7.33 million in the winter quarter, followed by sales of just 4.69 in the first calendar quarter of 2011 as buyers anticipated the launch of iPad 2. For weeks, Apple was unable to meet demand for the new tablet as long lines gave way to simply empty shelves.

There's an app for that

While Apple scrambles to build enough iPads to satiate global demand, it has had little problem attracting third party development. Apple noted it has paid developers $2.5 billion in app sales to date, creating a firestorm of software development that has made the iPad increasingly more attractive to users.

Apple's press release featured three developers extolling the virtues of iPad, including Dr. Ge Wang, a Smule co-founder and assistant professor at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.

Dr. Wang stated, "We sparked musical magic when iPhone users experienced Ocarina three years ago. And now with iPad, we've created the Magic Piano and Magic Fiddle apps. Who could've dreamt an iPad would make its way into the San Francisco Symphony?"

Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder of Epic Games said, "iPad provides us with an unparalleled mobile device for creating gorgeous, immersive games," said. "Infinity Blade has been a runaway hit with customers around the world and we couldn't be more excited about our success on iOS devices."

Nicholas Callaway, CEO of Callaway Digital Arts stated, "we're bringing Martha Stewart, Angelina Ballerina, Sesame Street and many more of the world's most popular books and magazines to iPad. We knew the iPad was going to be a revolutionary storytelling device, but never could have anticipated it would become so popular, so quickly."